Reading History in Early Modern England

This book focuses on the 'after-life' of historical texts in the period between the arrival of printing in England and the early eighteenth century. Whereas previous studies of historical writing during this period have focused on their authors and on their style or methodology, this work examines the history book from a number of other perspectives. The intent is to situate the study of history books within the current literature on the history of the book and the history of print culture. After discussing the process whereby the inheritance of the medieval chronicle was broken down into a variety of different historical genres during the sixteenth century, the author turns to the questions of how and why history books were read, who owned them, the borrowing and lending of them, their production and printing, and methods for marketing and distributing them.

'D. R. Woolf's excellent new book … combining wide-ranging archival research with imaginative ingenuity.' Kevin Sharpe, The Times Literary Supplement

Daniel Woolf is Professor of History at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada where he has also served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal since 2009. He previously held professorial and administrative posts at the University of Alberta (2002–2009), McMaster University (1999–2002) and Dalhousie University (1987–1999). He holds a BA from Queen's University and a D.Phil. from Oxford University. Professor Woolf is the author or editor of several books and many scholarly articles and book chapters. He has published A Global History of History with Cambridge University Press and is also general editor of the five-volume Oxford History of Historical Writing.